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Book Reviews
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The Searchers. The Quest for the Lost of the First World War by Robert Sackville-West
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The End of the Road. A journey around Britain in search of the dead By Jack Cooke
The Searchers by Robert Sackville-West takes the reader into the previously unexplored territory of the locating and reburying the dead of the First World War (1914-1918). This huge task which was commenced in the days immediately after the end of hostilities involved disinterring then identifying the body – which was not always possible – followed by interment in the newly created war cemeteries. Taking some years to complete, and despite initial thorough scrutiny of the battlefields bodies continue to emerge.
This book is not just about exhumation as it also examines the colossal administration behind documenting and recording the dead (in which the writer EM Forster was involved), not to mention answering the thousands of enquiry letters from the bereaved. In some cases, those with financial means conducted their own enquiries. Whilst it was prohibited to transport the battle-dead back to the UK, this did not prevent the occasional occurrence.
The war cemeteries gave rise to the visits by the bereaved, in some cases funded by charities, perhaps the earliest example of what would today be called ‘necro-tourism’. For those whose sons or husbands could not be found, a measure of solace was provided by the unveiling of the Cenotaph and burial of the Unknown Warrior.
Sackville-West also covers the attempts to contact the war dead through spiritualism, especially by establishment figures such as Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle and the physicist, Sir Oliver Lodge. The final pages look at the reburial of the recently recovered while the Epilogue discusses the re-emergence of interest in the rituals of remembrance.
This engagingly written and thoroughly researched book provides a unique insight for those interested in not only the task of large-scale exhumations and subsequent reburials, but the needs of those grieving.
The author’s trawls of the files in the National Archive along with newspapers and biographies is impressive. In addition, personal correspondence has been examined from which a number of heart-felt quotes have been extracted in this moving and exhaustive study. A highly recommended book.
The subtitle of this book more than adequately sums up its contents, although it is only the selected dead that the author searches out. Jack Cooke is a writer whose track record is literally that – recording encounters on journeys with a purpose. In this case he is driving around Britain in an old Daimler hearse visiting places where the dead are (or have been) interred or cremated. Sites include the chattri on the South Downs where Sikh soldiers were cremated during WWI; Thomas Hardy’s grave in Dorset; Llantrisant where Dr Price cremated his young son; Charles Thompson’s grave in Sherwood Forest; a desolate mausoleum on the island of Rum; the Lakeland Fells where Alfred Wainwright’s ashes rest; a coffin perched in the loft rafters of a bank in Stevenage, and so the list continues. In fact, nearly forty places are mentioned. On the journey the writer treats the hearse as a caravan by sleeping on the adapted bier (in the interests of modesty, curtains are provided in the side windows); a spider called Enfield is his only travelling companion.
Readers of this publication will be aware that a hearse, whether containing a coffin or not, attracts attention and this vehicle was no exception, although the staff at a drive-thru McDonald’s made no reaction. After some 2,000 miles the hearse comes to the end of its life in Scotland before being taken back to a neighbour’s cow shed and sold for parts; Enfield was rescued and duly released.
This is an engaging, gentle and at times amusingly written travelogue, and it’s probably the first of its kind involving a funereal vehicle as the means of transport. Clearly the writer has done his research and mapped out his route accordingly, but there is no bibliography and only a modest list of names of those who have helped with information.
Those working in this occupation will no doubt also visit similar locations when touring around the country or going further afield on holiday, but the means of transport will undoubtedly be a private car. It’s often an occasion when spouses or partners groan and comments are made along the lines of ‘Don’t you have enough of this at work?’
What this book confirms is that the dead are around us everywhere, whether commemorated or not and there’s a story to be told about many of them. This is a compendium of those tales commentating that life is a journey to the end of the road.
